Join CGM

One of the main goals of CGM is to unite the interdisciplinary faculty at the University of Utah working in genetics and genomics. Together, our faculty are harnessing the power of family-based genomics to prevent and cure disease in Utah and beyond.


Why Join? By joining, CGM faculty can apply for seed funding and access resources to support genetic discovery and genomic medicine.


How to Join? To join CGM, please complete our brief application survey. Note that you will be asked to upload a current version of your CV.

Faculty A-M

Fred Adler, PhD

Research Areas: Link information from genomic medicine with mechanistic mathematical models, with a particular focus on cancer, host-virus interactions, and cystic fibrosis

laith Al-Rabadi, MD

Research Areas:

Lisa Albright, PhD

Research Areas: Directs high-risk pedigree studies to identify predisposing genes for prostate, colon, breast, and lung cancer, as well as melanoma, Alzheimers, and Parkinsons.

Kristina Allen-Brady, PhD

Research Areas: Pelvic organ prolapse

Orly Alter, PhD

Research Areas: genetics, mathematics, physics, artificial intelligence, data science, machine learning

Lisa Aspinwall, PhD

Research Areas: genetic risk communication, genetic testing outcomes, and health cognitions, prevention behaviors

Kenneth (Ki) Aston, PhD

Research Areas:

Pinar Bayrak-Toydemir, MD, PhD

Research Areas:

Hunter Best, PhD

Research Areas:

hunter.best@utah.edu 

Anne Blaschke-Bonkowsky, MD, PhD

Research Areas: comparative bacterial genomics, diagnostics, genetic determinants of bacterial virulence

Nathan Blue, MD

Research Areas: Genetic variation between the fetus and placenta and within the placenta in placental insufficiency

Josh Bonkowsky, MD, PhD

Research Areas: 

 

Jeffrey Botkin, MD, MPH

Research Areas:

Lorenzo Botto, MD

Research Areas: Undiagnosed and rare diseases, bone diseases (skeletal dysplasias), metabolic disorders, risk factors and prevention of congenital anomalies

Adam Bress, PharmD, MS

Research Areas: Pharmacogenetics / Genetic ancestry / racial differences in health outcomes and drug responses

Diana Brixner, RPh, PhD, FAMCP

Research Areas: Genomic risk for drug interactions

Luca Brunelli, MD, PhD

Research Areas:

Russell Butterfield, MD, PhD

Research Areas: gene therapy, genetic modifiers, gene discovery, muscular dystrophy, clinical trials

Nicola Camp, PhD

Research Areas:

Meghan Candee, MD, MS

Research Areas:

Douglas Carrell, PhD

Research Areas:
 

Samuel Cheshier, MD, PhD

Research Areas: Group 3 medulloblastoma, Notch1, malignant pediatric brain tumors, single-cell RNA sequencing, Gene expression, drug screen

Clement Chow, PhD

Research Areas: Animal models, rare disease, precision medicine, drug discovery, genomic medicine

Jessica Cohan, MS, MAS

Research Areas: characterize genetic contributions to the development and severity of diverticulitis with the long-term goal of using precision medicine for the prevention and treatment of patients with diverticulitis

Jorge Contreras, JD

Research Areas:

Hilary Coon, PhD

Research Areas: 

David Crockett, PhD

Research Areas: 

Michael Deininger, MD, PhD

Research Areas: Tyrosine kinase inhibitors for the treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia / BCR-ABL1 kinase domain mutations / clonal cytogenetic abnormalities in Philadelphia chromosome negative cells / somatic mutation spectrum of chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML)/ clonal dynamics in CMML

Karin Dent, MS

Research Areas: Genetic counseling, genetic counseling education, genetic counseling research, genetic counseling and precision medicine

Willard Dere, MD, FACP

Research Areas:

Jennifer Doherty, MS, PhD

Research Areas:

Karen Eilbeck, PhD

Research Areas: Informatics, knowledge representation and genomics / standards development / genomic annotation and variant interpretation

Lyska Emerson, MD

Research Areas:

Justin English, PhD

Research Areas:

Bingjian Feng, PhD

Research Areas: Disease gene hunting, disease risk prediction, pathogenicity classification of genetic variants, and the development of novel diagnostic tests using genomic information

James Gagnon, PhD

Research Areas: CRISPR genome editing and single-cell RNA sequencing as transformative technologies for studying healthy development and disease progression in model organisms

Jay Gertz, PhD

Research Areas: Gene regulation defects in cancer. We use genomic approaches to answer questions about how aberrant gene expression occurs and to discover treatment response biomarkers

Jeremy Gililland, MD

Research Areas: genetic discovery, diagnostics, familial risk, post-operative infection

Jason Glotzbach, MD

Research Areas: genetic causes of aortic disease

David Grunwald, PhD

Research Areas: Methods to precisely modify the zebrafish genome; Transcription regulation of the stem cell state; discovery of genes and pathways that confer susceptibility to osteoarthritis 

Stephen Guthery, MD

Research Areas:

Heidi Hanson, PhD, MS

Research Areas: Incorporate genealogical data with environmental exposures and cutting-edge genomic and multi-omic methodologies. Advance gene-environment research and translate epidemiological findings to clinical practice. Cancer prevention, early detection, and improved cancer diagnosis

Sheetal Hardikar, MBBS, PhD, MPH

Research Areas: 

Amy Hawkins, PhD

Research Areas: genetics education, undergraduate medical education, personalized medicine, science communication

Jim Hotaling, MD, MS

Research Areas:

Kelly Hughes, PhD

Research Areas: genetic code, base modifications, codon context

Peter Jensen, MD

Research Areas:

Erica Johnstone, MD

Research Areas:

Lynn Jorde, PhD

Research Areas:

Mick Jurynec, PhD

Research Areas: Genetic discovery, familial genetics, and functional analyses

Priyanka Kanth, MD

Research Areas: Genetic discovery, diagnostics

Kimberly Kaphingst, DcD

Research Areas: cancer genomics, communication, return of results, patient outcomes, ELSI

Nikolas Kazmers, MD, MSE

Research Areas: 

Kibum Kim, PhD

Research Areas: 

Sara Knight, PhD

Research Areas:

Wendy Kohlmann, MS

Research Areas: genetic counseling, return of incidental finding, public health genomics

Nicola Longo, MD, PhD

Research Areas: Metabolic disorders / Clinical genomics / Fatty acid oxidation disorders / Clinical trials for genetic disorders

Sabrina Malone-Jenkins, MD

Research Areas:

Rong Mao, MD

Research Areas:

Gabor Marth, DSc

Research Areas:

Clint Mason, PhD

Research Areas: Genomic Analysis, Cancer Genetics, Pre-cancer Surveillance, Clonal Hematopoiesis of Indeterminate Potential, Pediatric Cancers, Statistics/Study Design

Gwendolyn McMillin, PhD

Research Areas: Pharmacogenetics

Charles Murtaugh, PhD

Research Areas: 

Faculty N-Z

Deborah Neklason, PhD

Research Areas:

Betsy Ostrander, MD

Research Areas: neonatal encephalopathy, neonatal epilepsy, neonatal neurology

Laura Pace, MD, PhD

Research Areas:

Alexander Pastuszak, MD, PhD

Research Areas: 

alexander.pastuszak@hsc.utah.edu 

Andy Peiffer, MD, PhD

Research Areas: 

Angela Peron, MD

Research Areas:

Randall Peterson, PhD

Research Areas: 

Kathryn Peterson, MD, MSCI

Research Areas:

Marcus Pezzolesi, PhD, MPH

Research Areas: 

Nitin Phadnis, PhD

Research Areas:

Mary Playdon, PhD

Research Areas:

Josef Prchal, MD

Research Areas: Molecular Basis of Hematological Diseases and Genomic Signatures of Hypoxia Adaptation

Stefan Pulst, MD

Research Areas: genetic discovery, animal models, gene-based therapy, autophagy, clinical genetic diagnosis

Aaron Quinlan, PhD

Research Areas: 

Scott (Noel) Reading, PhD

Research Areas:

Christopher Reilly, PhD

Research Areas: Asthma genomics, CYP P450 genomics, SNP discovery and characterization, air pollution hyper-sensitivity, pharmacogenomics

Aylin Rodan, MD, PhD

Research Areas: Genetic discovery, Model organisms (Drosophila), Inherited disease

Michael Rollins, MD

Research Areas: Clinical genomics, genetic discovery, Hirschsprung disease

Matthew Rondina, MD

Research Areas: Platelets, Gene Editing, CRISPR/Cas9, Human Genetics, Inflammation

Erin Rothwell, PhD

Research Areas: Bioethics, informed consent, population screening, biobanking, prenatal genetic

Joshua Schiffman, MD, MSCI

Research Areas: 

Amnon Schlegel, MD, PhD

Research Areas:

Eric Schmidt, PhD

Research Areas: 

Mary Beth Scholand, MD

Research Areas: 

Craig Selzman, MD

Research Areas: cardiovascular genomics, genomic determinants of myocardial disease and heart failure

Alex Shcheglovitov, PhD

Research Areas: 

Ken Smith, PhD

Research Areas:

Joseph Stanford, MD, MSPH

Research Areas: cohort studies, longitudinal family studies, epidemiology

Louisa Stark, PhD

Research Areas: 

Deborah Stephens, DO

Research Areas:

Scott Summers, PhD

Research Areas: genetic discovery; nutrigenomics; genetics of diabetes 

Sean Tavtigian, PhD

Research Areas:

Craig Teerlink, PhD

Research Areas: high-risk pedigrees, genomic analysis, genetic association, family-based designs, haplotype analysis

Carrie Torr, MD

Research Areas: Neonatal genomic testing, bioethics, parental consent

Martin Tristani-Firouzi, MD

Research Areas: Clinical genomics, genetic discovery, precision medicine, functional analysis

K-T Varley, PhD

Research Areas:

Michael Varner, MD

Research Areas: 

David Viskochil, MD, PhD

Research Areas: 

Adam Ware, MD

Research Areas:

Robert Weiss, PhD

Research Areas: 

Melodie Weller, PhD

Research Areas: 

Corrine Welt, MD

Research Areas:

Whitney Wooderchak-Donahue, PhD

Research Areas: Vascular anomalies, pharmacogenomics, diagnostics, genetic discovery

Tsegaselassie Workalemahu, PhD, MSc

Research Areas: Population genomics, Epigenetics, Gene-Environment Interactions, Clinical Genomics, Multi-Omics

Mark Yandell, PhD

Research Areas: 

Jun Yang, PhD

Research Areas: genetic disease mechanism and treatment, retinal degeneration, hearing loss

H. Joseph Yost, PhD

Research Areas: cardiovascular genomics, zebrafish genetics, Genomics Summer Research for Minorities